Phone apps can lead motorists to jail.
It may be a convenient way of finding your way around by keying in the destinations in the iPhone app or looking at a smartphone for directions while driving. However, many motorists do not know that using a smartphone to find directions while driving is illegal. Motorists caught doing so may be booked for inconsiderate driving and they could be fined up to $1000 or jailed for up to 6 months.
Many iPhone users may not know that using their phones as a navigation tool is illegal. However, this measure is to prevent accidents from happening on the road. Motorists may be distracted when they search for the directions and might not keep their eyes on the road.

Labels: Shermin

25 drink-drivers arrested.
25 drink-drivers were arrested in a five hour operation on 23 December, Thursday, morning. Road blocks were set up along Church Street, South Bridge Road, New Bridge Road and North Canal Road which is around drinking and entertainment areas. During the operation, 74 motorists aged 22 to 53 took the breathalyser test and 23 men and 2 women failed the test and were arrested for drink-driving. The highest breathalyser result was 90 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath. That was more than twice the prescribed legal limit of 35 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath.
It is important for the authorities to be more stringent in their operations during this festive season as many people will be out partying till late at night during Christmas and the New Year. When people drink, they should not drive as they may be reckless on the roads and might cause death. It is important not to drink and drive.

Labels: Shermin

Three Singaporeans drowned in a boat capsizing off Mersing.
Three Singaporeans died and two are still missing in Mersing tragedy during a Christmas weekend fishing trip. 29 travellers were on board the wooden vessel when it capsized on 26 December, Sunday at 1.30pm. The boat was overloaded as it was only suppose to carry 12 passengers but more than double the dozen of passengers was allowed on the vessel. The boat was on the way back to Singapore when it capsized just 200 to 300 meters from the jetty because of the strong currents and the rough weather conditions. Moreover, the passengers were not wearing any life vests.
It is a tragedy to lose life because of such incidents like overloading of passengers. It is the responsibility of the boatman to ensure the safety of his passengers and ensure that his boat is not overloaded and the passengers are wearing lifejackets. It is to ensure that such tragedy will not happen and result in any loss of life.

Labels: Shermin

Teen Gangs.
Recently, there have been a series of slashing incidents islandwide for the past one month. These slashing incidents are related to teen gangs fights by slashing their victims with choppers and knives.
On 31 Oct 2010, Darren Ng, 19, was slashed to death after getting into a "staring incident" at Downtown East on Halloween night. He was repeatedly hacked in full view of the crowd and the violent attack left a 500m long trail of blood at the Pasir Ris Resort and the amusement park.
The latest incident happened on Thursday outside a 24 hour restaurant at Blk 448, Ang Mo Kio Ave 10. It started when two youths got into a loud dispute and a shoving match before the 17 year old victim was slashed on the right shoulder. He was then taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.
In my opinion, it seems that teen gang related activities such as gang fights and slashing incidents are becoming a norm for teens these days as teens could blatantly slash someone in public. They even dare to carry weapons such as choppers and knives around which can pose a threat to public. Teens should not have this, "stare what stare" mindset as such staring incidents could escalate to slashing incidents and as a result, an innocent life is lost.

Labels: Shermin

Facebook.
Facebook is a social networking website which most of us are familiar with as most of us surely have a facebook account. It was only launched in February 2004 and as of July 2010, there is already more than 500 million active users all over the world. Users create a profile, add other users as friends, exchanges messages, join interest groups and receive notifications.

Through facebook, users can keep in contact with friends they have not met in years. That is because, whenever your friends update their status, it will appear on the news feed. These status informs their friends about their daily activities. In this way, you will know how your friends are doing and you do not need to meet up with them to ask them how they are. It is also a platform for users to engage in social activities as this social networking website can widen your circle of friends and also to get to know them better by viewing their profile. Facebook also has numerous features on how users can interact. One way is by writing on your friend's wall which are messages for your friend to see. From there, users can comment on the wall post. Users can also create photo albums and upload photos into the albums. Photos can also be shared with friends by tagging them in the photos.

However, there are also drawbacks from this popular social networking site. One obvious disadvantage is addiction. Most of us are addicted to facebook even though we are not aware of it. I'm sure as you are reading this post, most of you have a facebook tab now or it is also the first website most people log on to once they switch on the computer. This is not only constricted to the computer, many of us now own smartphones and we could now log on to this website at any time anywhere and a majority of us became obsessed to check your notifications every few mintues. Facebook could be a distraction to many of us as we would rather spend time on facebook than studying. Another drawback is the privacy. Many of us may not private the account or adjust the privacy settings properly and therefore, many people whom you may not even know personally can view your photos and profile.

Labels: Shermin

A smartphone is a mobile phone that can perform functions that a computer does, such as accessing to the internet. Some examples of smartphones are like iPhone and Blackberry.
iPhone was first introduced in 2009 by Apple Inc. Besides having text messaging and camera functions which any other usual mobile phone has, iPhone has functions that allow users to surf the internet anywhere with the support of 3G cellular network. Moreover, there are also applications available for the App store. These apps have many different functions such as games, entertainment, social networking and even for educational needs. With these applications, you do not need your computer or laptop to surf the internet when an iPhone has the functions.
Blackberry is developed by Research In Motion (RIM). Blackberry could also be used to surf the internet with the support of Blackberry Internet Services. It also allow up to 10 email account to be accessed. With that, sending and receiving emails for personal or even business use will be convenient for Blackberry users. Also, there is push notifications for other Blackberry Applications for social networking sites such as facebook and twitter. With these functions, it will be very convenient for users to receive updates and emails.

Labels: Shermin